Darth Xiphos and the trio pressed forward but it seemed as though the enemies that were still trying to stop them had gotten increasingly desperate to keep them from reaching the main reactor, rigging explosives everywhere, trying to repeatedly vent them into space, sending scores of Fanatical chain gun using Mawites and Final Dawn Stormtroopers coming from every angle, relentlessly. Still, thanks to The Amalgam's massive display of The Dark Side that had heavily damaged and literally crushed certain sections of the station, the swarm they were experiencing wasn't
nearly as bad as it could have been, despite still being pretty friggin bad.
Xiphos's armor, though made for intense combat, was getting slowly more and more damaged. Maple Harte fought like a Demon, using the peculiarities of her living armor to form powerful tendrils that snatched victims and pulled them into her reach to be telekinetically strangled before smashed into the floor or hurled into more bodies. The Nuetralizers had sustained moderate damage, but they were among the most dangerous droids in the Galaxy for a reason. Their marksmanship was almost second to none and they inflicted obscenely high levels of casualties just on this basis alone.
"I'LL-BE-YOUR-GIRL, BACK-STAGE AT-YOUR-SHOW, VEL-VET ROPES-AND-GUITARS, YEAH 'CAUSE YOU'RE-MY-ROCK-STARRRRR, INNNNN-BETWEEN THE-SETS. EYE-LINER AND-CI-GA-RETTES--"
" 'CAUSE-YOU-KNOW-THAT-BABY-IIIIIII---" interjected Xiphos, Amy, Maple, along with Adam and Burt impulsively due to their various levels of troubling mental instability in unison as they ripped through another desperately set up chokepoint with a combination of Lightsabers, gunfire, lightning, Vibroweapons and magic tricks that looked hard AF. Gibs flew wildly everywhere. The amount of XP getting earned was
insane.
"I'M-YOUR-BIGGEST-FAN, I'LL-FOLLOW-YOU-UN-TIL-YOU-
HATE-ME, YOU MAW-ITE, MAW-ITE, MAW-ITE
CRAAAAA-ZIES." the Nuetralizers sang back joyously as they gunned down the Maw.
Even Adam and Burt had taken damage now. The armor was heavily scorched on both of them. But they had been physically enhanced so they were still going strong. But even The Amalgam had little wounds all over her body leaking white blood. Ironically, Maple was the least injured of them. Wedged in between an abomination composed of legions of evil, perverted minds, and a Mad Scientist Sith Marauder Super Soldier, Maple had gotten by just through having that damn good an aim and putting a ton of points into her DEX stat.
The Ammo for her Battle Rifle had run completely dry, and now she was stealing the enemies weapons to use them.
In between all this Xiphos reached out to her son Hadrian via her technopathy.
Firstborn? How fairs the Leviathan?
Sustained heavy damage as has Battle Group A. But holding. Have fired the Scythe Weapon. Engines on Fatalis are crippled. It's Destruction is inevitable. Hadrian answered back.
"Julia, I can feel the curse I put in
Tu'teggacha
taking hold." The Amalgam hissed as she cut a dude in half with her fiery orange blades. "Tell your child to move the Leviathan away from the Fatalis while they still can. It's a Force Slow Curse. Their reactions times have been significantly reduced."
Xiphos nodded, crushing a red armored Final Dawn Trooper's skull.
Please move the Leviathan away, son. Signal the Cultists aboard to prepare the ritual. If I'm right, they'll try and take you with them.
I ordered it before you even contacted me Hadrian replied back.
"Tell the Witches in the Cargo Hold it's time." Hadrian ordered The Leviathan's tactical A.I.
"By your command, General Hadrian." The A.I answered back.
The initial impacts were scathing from the Fatalis. House Io ships, the Leviathan of Danuta in particular, were built to withstand absurd amounts of punishment from ships twice it's size. Its predecessor, The Leviathan of Sev Tok, had weathered a truly
blistering level of fire from multiple Capital Ships as it stood in the way of their firing solutions for the Surface of Rhand, taking a beating that almost certainly would have killed thousands more attempting to evacuate the surface after it destroyed The World Ship had it not stood in the way. The Rhand Cruisers had been based off that design as well. But at point blank ranges even they felt it. But Hadrian's order, anticipating this tactic, given what Xiphos had told him of Oyokai, acknowledged the fact that if the Maw could not win, they tried to make certain
everyone would lose.
At point blank ranges, even then, the Leviathan was frightfully tough. The Singularity Shielding alone absorbed positively
psychotic levels of damage, it's massively impressive shielding from other sources soaking up devastating power But even it could only hold out so long. But Hadrian's pre-emptive order to pull back had given them a chance, the commanders of the other remaining Destroyers in his group getting in front of it to soak up the power of devastating blows. Each selflessly dedicated to thwarting The Maw, each willing to go to any lengths necessary to deny them true Victory. The Rhand Class Cruisers as they pulled away, along with the Star Destroyers in front of the Leviathan, savagely unleashed all their remaining arsenal at the powerful guns of the Fatalis, targeting Jammers on all ships going crazy trying to foil the accuracy of those guns, and thus did work, to an extent, preventing a great deal of shots from landing.
That was when the Slow Curse took full effect on the bridge, and it allowed them to get further away still. The Force Witches on each vessel telepathically communicating as they worked a deeply profane and unholy ritual across all vessels, involving the horribly tortured Maw and Jedi Prisoners they had been stealing...
With everyone moving so slow to react and respond to commands on the Fatalis it actually allowed the Leviathan a fair amount of time to put the next part of their survival plan into motion, because even computerized guns need occasional adjustment. New firing data must be input. Systems monitored for errors, and damage. And with a mind in mollasses, that's kind of hard to do on the fly. Shots started to miss in greater amounts.
The pain of Mawite and Jedi souls being violently consumed by the Dark Side channeled a terrible ritual being enacted not just on the Leviathan of Danuta but on all it's ships.
They had held back from using it as long as possible. It essence, it was a greatly expanded, perverse take on the
Fold Space ability. Fueled by hatred, rage, cruelty, and suffering. Whether from themselves or others.
Held back until Hadrian was certain the Maw would try and go all out. They lost a Battle Cruiser, cracking open in a death knell as all remaining hands were forced to abandon ship. With it's remaining power, it sped towards a main gun, hoping to ram it. The Maw had taught House Io the power of Total War, indeed.
Just then the ritual enacted on every remaining ship took off, even as the Cruisers unleashed deadly Void-007 Seismic Charges on the hull of the Fatalis.
A series of terrible black portals created by the Dark Side, fueled by both the sacrifices and the energy from the tears in reality, began to surround every ship. Some shots got through, damaging the hull, but now at a much more survivable rate.
Make no mistake. The damage to all ships in Battle Group A was extensive. The Leviathan took heavy hull damage, mostly on the front and left side, completely knocking out it's Solar Ionization Cannons and over half it's Torpedoes and most of its unique main weapon systems. Nearly every Cruiser lost its main weapon. But the dark portals that folded space around the ship and the rest of the Battle Group absorbed the most terrible parts, rendering the deadly barrage
somewhat survivable.
As for where all that planet scorching ammunition went? Well, it reappeared coming out of another Dark Side Portal that expelled all the fire meant to hit the Leviathan and the rest of the ships under Hadrian's command.
But it didn't reappear about to hit any other ships in the picket line. Destroying those ships meant nothing if the Avatar could still fire.
The Portal of Dark Energy folding space time had manifested, through the sheer will and control of the Witches, right over the Super Laser Array of the Avatar itself. And close too, which would hopefully do maximum damage possible. And with the Slow Curse working it's way through the Fatalis, by the time the bridge crew and the rest of the ship realized the potentially fatal tactic that had turned their very own, continent destroying firepower upon that which they were sworn to defend, they might literally be too slow to reverse course in time and react to stop the bombardment that had been meant to kill The Leviathan and it's Battle Group.
The Ritual would last only a few minutes. But it bought the Leviathan more time to back away, all ships in Battle Group A ordering their remaining fighters and bombers back to attack all remaining guns on the Fatalis while the Leviathan, the remaining Destroyers and her Battle Cruisers limped away to regroup, sending a message to
Aculia Voland
,
Keatoch
, and
Aximand Sicarus
:
Fatalis has sustained crippling damage. Both advise and request all guns on your capital ships to alpha strike Super Laser Array now, if possible.
Meanwhile...
The Witches, and the Nuetralizers, led by The Parliament (AKA The Xiphos Who Laughs) began moving quickly away from Onas while Ted tried to kill her.
The Parliament had mastered Force Teleportation to a degree that even the Xiphos
Percival Io
was used to would have found difficult to match.
("Dies Irae" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Plays)
She was a vanishing and manifesting terror on the Battlefield, appearing suddenly above, in front of, and behind groups of Mawites trying to attack the three heavily enchanted Seismic Charges, the Witches and Model 1's were slowly moving into place through the Battlefield.
There was that same brutal, pragmatic style Xiphos employed. Mostly a vicious Form 1, with elements of Form 2 and 6 in the parrying and use of Force Power, while incorporating Djem So's brutal overhead attacks,
Despite her insanity, her attacks had a fluid, unpredictable beauty in their execution, easily slicing through the most stalwart sword or blaster defense, sometimes grabbing a victim and teleporting 300 meters upwards, letting go of the victim, teleporting to the ground, and the victim would hit the ground a few seconds later.
"So have you married Rebecca here, like you did in my world?" The Parliament asked Percival as though they were gossiping in a mall, appearing behind a Mawite Sith and snapping his neck. They were not yet at the proper place to deploy the charges just yet, so in her warped mind, she might as well make conversation...
"You two were such a cute couple. She never got over it, you know...."
Caltin Vanagor
| Open for any Heroes!
Thurion Heavenshield
|
The Manifold
|
Romi Jade
| Jace Khel
Shade of Decay
